Someone To Protect
by MomoDesu
Summary: After ending up on the losing end of a fight with a mysterious river dwelling youkai, Kagome falls ill and is cared for by the person she least expected.
1. Awakening

_Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. _

_A/N: This was written for the first prompt in the Damsel In Distress challenge at dokuga_contest, Damsel In Danger. This is completely unbetaed and probably makes little sense. I'm just happy to have my muse back ^^_

_Momo_

-----

Cold.

Wet.

Aching.

Kagome opened her eyes and groaned. She wasn't quite sure where she was, though she did come to the conclusion that it was a cave of some sort. She shivered. The last thing that she could remember was fighting alongside Inuyasha. There were rumors of a strange youkai attacking travelers on the route from Kaede's village to the next village over. She and Inuyasha tracked the youkai down, a strange water dwelling youkai that Kagome hadn't ever encountered before. The last thing she remembered was being thrown into the river, then everything went black. What happened after that was a complete mystery.

Every bone in her body ached. She drifted off to sleep again, silently praying that she would wake up in a familiar place with her familiar hanyou worried by her side.

----------

Voices. There were voices. Slowly Kagome opened her eyes again. She wasn't as cold, nor was she wet. A quick glanced under the fur she was wrapped in confirmed that she wasn't wearing clothes, either.

"Rin is glad you are awake!"

Kagome jumped and sat straight up, only to be pushed back down by a tiny pair of hands.

"Oh no, Kagome, you mustn't get up!"

Kagome allowed Rin to push her back down into the makeshift bedroll and cover her up for modesty's sake. "Where am I?"

Rin beamed down at her. "Lord Sesshoumaru saved you!" The younger girl moved out of Kagome's range of vision. There was some shuffling around near her before Rin returned with some sort of compress that smelled of herbs. "We were taking you back to the 'the filthy hanyou'," she said those words in perfect imitation of Sesshoumaru, "but you you started to get sick. You're very ill!"

"Ill?" As much as Kagome didn't want to admit it, the herby smelling compress felt really good pressed against her forehead. "I have medicine in my backpack. It will make me better."

"That ugly yellow thing?" Rin questioned.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at her precious carry-all being called ugly but nodded in affirmation, making note that nodding might not be the smartest idea in the future given the way the cave suddenly started spinning.

Rin frowned and moved away again, returning with a piece of dirty, rumpled yellow cloth. "I'm sorry, Kagome."

She teared up a bit at the sight of her mangled yellow backpack hanging in Rin's hands. That backpack had gone everywhere with her, from school to all over Feudal Japan. "It's not your fault, Rin," she said, after a moment of mourning for the yellow bag. "I need you to get me back to Kaede's. She has medicine that will make me better again."

"No can do!" Rin replied, shaking a finger at her.

Kagome wrinkled her brow, three things running through her mind. First, why couldn't she be moved? Second, why was she naked? Third, where did Rin learn that modern saying?

"Why not?"

"Because Sesshoumaru hasn't healed you yet!"

As Kagome opened her mouth to answer, a terrible chill overtook her body. Everything ached, down to her bones. When it passed, Kagome snuggled under the heavy fur wrapped around her. "Sesshoumaru hasn't healed me?"

Rin laid down next to Kagome and began to pet her hair, much like a mother would do to an ailing child. "He is hunting for herbs!" she said proudly. "He makes medicine out of herbs and other things. It works really good!"

Slowly Kagome pieced together what she suspected happened. After she was thrown into the river and blacked out, Rin appealed to the little side of Sesshoumaru that actually gave a damn about humans and had him rescue her. She imagined that there was some well placed pouting in the mix on Rin's part. In the process of returning her to Inuyasha or the village, she fell ill and now she was under the care of Nurse Rin and Doctor Sesshoumaru. She wasn't sure if that was comforting or scary, even if Rin did have a good bedside manner for a child. And who removed her uniform? Did Sesshoumaru see her naked?

She relaxed and was eventually lulled into sleep by Rin's soothing hand on her hair, the lullaby the girl softly sang ringing in her ears.

----------

When she opened her eyes again, she wasn't as disoriented as she was when she first regained consciousness. The first thing she realized was she had some sort of clothing on. She didn't have the energy to figure out what, though she concluded it must have been made of the finest silk as it felt amazing against her skin. There was a small fire set up at the mouth of the cave, so she assumed that night had fallen. Somewhere to her left she could hear Rin and Jaken bickering over what they were going to eat that night, though there were no signs of Sesshoumaru that she could see. Even with the furs bundled on top of her and the silk felt amazing, Kagome was still cold and wanted nothing more than her sleeping bag and a nice bowl of stew, maybe some hot cocoa after she ate. A nice cuddling session with Inuyasha wouldn't be out of sorts either. No matter what, he was always warm.

She tried to sit up, but was again stopped once again by a hand on her shoulder. "You are ill, do not attempt to move." His voice made her blood run cold.

"You're going to kill me, aren't you?"

Sesshoumaru snorted and moved into her field of vision from his position behind her. "If this Sesshoumaru wished to kill you, I would have left you to die in the river."

"You saved me?" she asked, quite surprised.

"Obviously."

"You brought me here?"

"Obviously."

She gasped. "You changed my clothing!"

"Obviously."

"You saw me naked!" She flushed.

"Obviously."

She was growing frustrated. "Do you say anything other than obviously?"

"On occasion."

Feeling that she was getting nothing more out of him, Kagome snuggled back down into the furs and closed her eyes.

"Do not sleep, yet, miko. The medicine I have prepared is not quite complete." His clothing rustled as he stood and walked to the mouth of the cave and leaned over the fire, stirring the contents of a pot that sat in the embers on the edge of the small blaze. He added another ingredient, something from the pouch dangling at his hip. "Soon, miko."

"What sort of medicine is it?"

Sesshoumaru abandoned the fire and returned to her side, touching her forehead with his cool hand.

"Oh, that feels good," she moaned in pleasure. "Are your hands always that cold?"

An emotion Kagome couldn't place flashed over Sesshoumaru's face.

"You have a fever, miko. The medicine will help get rid of it so you may return to the half breed." He removed his hand from her forehead and replaced the cold compress. "It is one of the few things my mother taught me when I was a pup."

Once the compress was on her forehead, he moved to the concoction on the fire again, stirring it once more before transferring a ladle full to a cup and returning to her. "This will not taste pleasant," he said, helping her into a sitting position.

Kagome took the cup he offered with his free hand and sniffed the concoction. It smelled bitter, of herbs and something else she just couldn't place. She wrinkled her nose and moved the cup to her lips for a tiny taste. It tasted even worse than it smelled! Deciding it was the foul tasting brown liquid in the cup or wallowing in feverish misery for days in a cave somewhere in Japan under the watchful eye of Nurse Rin and Doctor Sesshoumaru, Kagome stiffened and chugged the drink. As if he anticipated her reaction, Sesshoumaru had a cup of water ready for her, which she gulped down just as quickly.

"Thank you," she said after he had helped her lay back down in the furs. "Why are you helping me?"

"Rin was worried for your welfare."

Something seemed off about the youkai at that moment. He didn't seem as large and as intimidating as she had once felt he was. She couldn't place her finger on it, but something was different. Maybe because his sword was safely in it's sheath and he wasn't trying to dismember her? It was something that would ordinarily bother her until she figured it out, but she didn't have the energy to think on it more.

Once she was settled, the world began to fade away again. This time, instead of the soft singing and hair petting, the crackling of the fire and Sesshoumaru's even breathing lulled her into a peaceful sleep.

----------

When she awoke again, it wasn't on her own accord. Someone was roughly shaking her shoulder, trying to rouse her from her slumber. "Five more minutes," she groaned and rolled over, curling up into a little ball.

"Kagome needs her medicine!"

Rin's perky voice was always a pleasure to hear, just not at the moment. At the moment Kagome wanted to go back to sleep. "Can't it wait?"

"Kagome will never get better if she doesn't take her medicine!" Rin shook her shoulder again. "Come on!"

Kagome groaned and sat up. "Lay it on me."

"Rin doesn't know if it would do any good if she laid it on you, silly, but Rin will try." Rin smiled and set the cup in Kagome's lap. "See."

Mentally, Kagome kicked herself. Slowly, so she didn't spill the drink, she moved her hand out of the warm fur, grabbed the cup, and brought it to her lips. With her other hand she pinched her nose and slammed the horrible stuff down. "There, all done. Going back to sleep now."

Rin scampered off, and Kagome returned to dreamland.

----------

Time seemed to lose meaning to Kagome. She would rouse from her sleep periodically, greeted either by Rin or Sesshoumaru, and then she would have more of the awful medicine shoved down her throat. How long had she been in the cave? Days? Weeks? And why hadn't Inuyasha come looking for her? Surely he would have found her by now had he been looking.

The last time she woke up, Kagome felt miraculously better. No one was in the cave with her, and the fire at the mouth had been put out. She wormed her way out of her fur and stood up. The room spun for a moment before everything settled into place. She looked down to see what she was wearing. _'Sesshoumaru's haori?' _she thought to herself, surprised that he had been willing to give up a piece of his own clothing for her sake.

"Rin? Sesshoumaru?" she called. When she got no answer she wandered out of the cave and into the woods. She hadn't gotten far when she heard a child's laughter and splashing. Kagome followed the sounds, eventually finding Rin playing in the shallows of the river under Sesshoumaru's watchful eye.

"Kagome!"

Kagome smiled at the girl, who was no bounding toward her.

"Rin."

Rin stopped in her tracks at Sesshoumaru's voice. "Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru?"

"The miko is still recovering. Leave her be."

The girl looked a little crestfallen, yet followed Sesshoumaru's directions. "Yes, Lord Sesshoumaru."

Kagome slowly walked to where Sesshoumaru sat and lowered herself to sit next to him. "Thank you, Sesshoumaru."

"Do not thank me, miko. Thank Rin. If it were up to me, I would have left you in the river to die."

'_That's encouraging_,' she thought, pouting. "What now?"

"Now? We travel." Sesshoumaru stood and beckoned with his hand for Rin to join him. It was then that Kagome realized exactly seemed so off: he wasn't wearing his fur piece. With more effort than it normally would have took, Kagome picked herself up from the ground and returned to the cave, arriving just in time to see Sesshoumaru standing where she had been sleeping, reattaching what she had come to call 'her furs' to his armor.

"There's no time to waste," he said. "Let's go."


	2. Traveling

_A/N: Written for the Damsel in Distress challenge at dokuga_contest, for the prompt "Dread"._

Big thanks to Priestess Skye for doing a quick beta job for me. You're amazing!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha and all related characters are property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am not profiting in any way from this story, unless you count personal satisfaction.

Kagome's feet ached. Simply ached. She hated traveling without shoes. Never before had she gone so long without some sort of shoe, even if it were as simple as a flip flop. For at least half a day she traveled with Sesshoumaru and Rin on the road back to her village, something that she was used to doing in the first place so it wasn't much of a bother, but it was a dreadful journey without the comfort of her favorite loafers. Those loafers took her all over the country, modern and feudal, plus all of those years at school. They were perfectly molded to her feet, the most comfortable shoes that she owned. She had no aclue how much time had passed since she lost them in the river, but she safely assumed they were still being carried along by the swiftly moving waters and destined to rot out at sea. Her feet were already blistering and becoming quite swollen, but she said nothing. Complaining would do her no good; she was lucky that Sesshoumaru had come along and saved her, and took care of her while she was ill. If she asked for more he could take his generosity away in a heartbeat and leave her alone in the forest with no idea of what direction in which to travel.

How did Rin go so long without shoes on her feet? Kagome imagined that the child's entire foot was a callus, much like Inuyasha's. His feet were terrible from years of running around with no shoes on. She would bet that both Rin and Inuyasha would be a pedicurist's nightmare.

She flailed her arms and cried out as she tripped over an exposed root. "Sesshoumaru, slow down!" she yelled after him.

The demon, who walked quite a few yards ahead of her, never stopped his forward motion, only turned his head to glance at her. "If you would hurry, you would not be left behind."

Quickly, she righted herself and marched along after her savior, her feet throbbing and bleeding more and more with each step she took.

Those were the least of her worries. The hot topic on her mind was Inuyasha. He hadn't come after her. It filled her with a sense of dread. Had something terrible happened to him? Did he come away from the battle worse off than she? Did the youkai, shudder to think, kill him?

She shook the thought from her mind. No. Inuyasha had taken on demons even bigger than he on more than one occasion and came out with nothing more than a couple of scrapes and a few bruises. She wasn't so stupid to believe that one small water youkai had taken him down.

The journey so far had been rather lackluster. Sesshoumaru led the pack, walking regally with his hair and fluttering sleeves swaying with each step he took. He did look odd only wearing an under-kimono, but Kagome was eternally grateful that he had sacrificed his clothing for her sake. The silk was a definite improvement from the rough cotton pieces she had been wearing. The clothing of a simple village miko was nothing compared to his clothing. Such luxury was something that she wasn't accustomed to, and she would be sure to appreciate the fine silk for as long as he allowed her to wear it.

The crisp early fall wind sent shivers up her spine whenever it caught her scantily clad figure. Barefooted and running around in a silk haori that came down to just above her knees wasn't the smartest thing to do as fall was setting in.

Finally, as the sun began to set in the west, Kagome spoke up. "I can't do this anymore, Sesshoumaru!" she cried.

Sesshoumaru stopped and turned to face her. "Had you said something earlier, Miko, we could have stopped."

Kagome narrowed her eyes at him. She was punishing herself the entire time?

"Wait here," he said, "This Sesshoumaru shall find suitable shelter for the night." Without any warning, Sesshoumaru disappeared in a blur of white and silver.

She sighed and sat down and started to pick the bigger pieces of dirt from the wounds in her feet. With any luck, Sesshoumaru would have more medicines for her that would help her heal as fast as his last concoction did.

Rin soon came to her and batted her hands away from her feet. "Rin will help!"

"No, Rin, I'll be fine," she replied, waving the child away.

Instead of minding, Rin shook her head. "Sometimes I help Lord Sesshoumaru after he has been in battle. I know a lot about healing!" she beamed.

Kagome didn't fight her, and leaned back and allowed Rin to do the best that she could with her feet. She grimaced when Rin pulled on a particularly jagged splinter in the ball of her foot. Again she cursed the loss of her backpack - all of her medical supplies were in there, including the tweezers she had picked up on her last trip home specifically designed for removing splinters and other small pieces of debris.

"Try not to move. It will hurt more if you do!"

How the girl could be so damn chipper while working on her bloodied feet?

Just as quickly as he had left, Sesshoumaru returned in another blur of white and silver. "I have found suitable shelter. Follow me."

Rin stood and bounded off in the direction that Sesshoumaru walked, but Kagome didn't move. She didn't dare move; moving and walking meant more pain, and she felt that she had endured enough of it for one day. "Sesshoumaru!" she called, "I can't do it!"

Sesshoumaru stopped and turned toward her. "Then you shall stay where you sit." He turned away and walked in the direction Rin was running.

"I will not! Help me! Please!" Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Sesshoumaru continued to walk away. Slowly he faded into the distance, and Kagome finally allowed herself to cry in full. How did she always seem to land herself in these situations? If she hadn't been so damn protective of the cat when she was fifteen, she could have avoided the well altogether and remained a normal high school girl in modern Tokyo. But no - she had to try to get the cat out of the well house and get dragged down the well, thus starting the chain of events that eventually landed her in the forest calling out for one of the most cold hearted demons she had ever met in her life. Being stuck on the ground with bloodied and battered feet seemed to be yet another unwelcome bonus.

No. She couldn't feel sorry for herself. It was completely counter productive. If she didn't pull herself off of the ground and follow to the shelter, she knew Sesshoumaru would be more than happy to leave her out there to die at the hands of any demon that so happened to come along. She crawled over to the nearest tree, scraping her knees and hands in the process. Slowly, she pulled herself to stand next to the tree, ignoring the stinging pain in her feet and knees. "You can do this. You defeated a megalomaniac with tentacles and bad gas, you can do this."

The first step was excruciating. Every little pebble and twig she treaded over felt like it cut through to the bone, setting her feet on fire. From tree to tree for balance, Kagome followed the path that Rin and Sesshoumaru had taken, every step harder than the first. "I will not die out here!" she screamed as loud as she possibly could. "I can do this Sesshoumaru!"

The sun was setting by the time she finally found the shelter Sesshoumaru had picked for the night. While it was not the warm and comfortable cave of the first night the camp area was cozy enough, with a fire already blazing with a spit of fish hanging over it.

"Kagome!"

She braced herself as the child ran to her and hugged her middle. "Hey, Rin," she said, gripping the girl just as tightly as she was being squeezed. "Help me by the fire, please?"

Just as slowly as she had trekked to the camp Rin helped Kagome to sit alongside the fire. "Rin will clean your feet again now!"

"Thank you," Kagome mumbled as she lay back on the grass and allowed the girl to tend to her feet. It was even more painful than the first round earlier that day. Eventually she allowed the pain to take over and blacked out, wondering where Inuyasha was and if he was alright.


End file.
